Again With This: Beverly Hills, 90210

AJ's about to be the youngest person in his department at Unnamed College to something something no one cares, and Joey's going back to Boston to be his date for a night of listening to him read his writing and then do some ballroom dancing. Pacey warns her not to get too caught up in the fantasy, tamping down her excitement before she's even gotten on the train. It's just as well, since AJ's so caught up in prep for the event that he sends his lifelong best friend Morgan -- a GIRL Morgan -- to retrieve Joey and unintentionally show off all the history AJ and Morgan share. (She even knows his actual first name!) Pacey has his own annoying boy to deal with: Buzz (Jonathan Lipnicki!), his new mentee. Making Buzz help with boat refurbishment leads to a conversation about whom the True Love was named for and whether Pacey has even kissed her yet -- something that seems to strike a resonant chord in Pacey, such that by the end of the episode, everything's changed. Way off in a whole other part of town, Dawson is s

When Principal Green expelled him in the last episode, Matt Caufield warned him that his father was going to come after Principal Green with everything he had, and he wasn't lying: the episode opens with outraged parents screaming through an emergency meeting about this supposed attack on a boy who was just playing a prank. Also outraged: Gale, when she sees that her former intern Sherry, now a field reporter, is on the scene filing the first of several obviously biased pieces about the situation. Pacey suggests to a fired-up Joey that she should organize a protest -- something she doesn't quite hear until AJ tells her the same thing. When Gale complains to Dawson about Sherry's uninformed reporting, Dawson convinces her that the two of them could put together their own one-camera shoot telling the true story. But not everyone is on the right side of history: a concerned citizen vaguely threatening Bessie's business has her too stressed to join Joey's revolution. Listen to our podcast on "To Green, With Love,

The school board and PTA have selected several student artists to create murals on the walls of Capeside High School, and Joey -- who recently remembered art was something she used to be into -- is one of them! Her concept involves a Chinese hanzi even though she's not Chinese herself, as far as we know; nevertheless, it is still sad when her work ends up getting vandalized. Pacey takes a break from tormenting his new roommate, Deputy Doug, to go on the case of who ruined Joey's work and ends up...well, exactly where you'd probably expect after a new rich jerk was just introduced in the last episode. Principal Green is thrilled to tell Andie that her PSAT scores put her in the top 50,000 students and on track for a National Merit Scholarship. This shakes something loose in her; quitting the disciplinary committee is just the beginning. You'll only be punishing yourself if you skip our episode on "Crime & Punishment"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

Joey does NOT have Valentine's Day plans with "college boy," so what will the gang be doing for the Hallmarkiest of holidays? Attending an ANTI-Valentine's Day party thrown by Matt Caulfield, some rich jerk from school we've never heard of before -- and since the event is very secret and exclusive so it doesn't get raided by cops, finding it requires a little tradecraft. Everyone should be motivated to figure out where to go, since they have a visitor to impress: Kate (Alexandra Breckenridge!), Jack's ex-girlfriend from Rhode Island. She's fresh off a breakup, so Pacey decides the best way to get her through it is for Dawson to try to hook up with her -- and you KNOW Joey is as judgy about that as she was about the party itself until she actually showed up for it. Elsewhere, it's finally time for the date Henry and Jen have been talking about for several episodes. Henry got the meal comped, but still wants to arrive with a gift, and the best way he can think of to make some quick cash is not to do more odd jo

It's time for the play! Andie's stressed as hell, and that's BEFORE Mr. Broderick has a medical emergency that requires her to take over for him entirely! Even though Joey's been helping Pacey run his lines, he still isn't off-book and NEEDS her to be there opening night! But...she can't, because she has a date with AJ to attend a northern lights party with a bunch of old nerds! The play is also Jen's excuse for postponing her big dinner out with Henry, but when he calls her bluff, she has no reason to say why he shouldn't attend the show with her! As for Dawson: he's still in such crisis about his true purpose in life that he's DROPPED FILM CLASS!!! Find somewhere comfortable to watch the skies: we're here to tell you all about "Northern Lights"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

Joey and Bessie's new bed & breakfast has finally opened, but since they spent every cent on the construction and left nothing for promotion, they don't actually have any guests. (They can't even ask their old friend Gale to do a puff piece on the opening, since she's been crapping out at every network she's applied to for a new job in journalism.) Pacey takes it upon himself to track down Fred Fricke, the biggest tastemaker in B&Bs, to come review the place for the New York Times travel section -- which would be a good idea maybe a month in when Bessie and Joey have worked out some of the kinks, but maybe not right now when there's still a room under construction and there aren't any guests. Pacey then tries to fix the fix by asking all their loved ones to come fill up the place for Fricke's benefit, and since Mitch brings Gale, that sends Dawson into a tailspin. Sharing accommodations isn't something Jack and Andie have done lately, as she keeps reminding him -- on, he assumes, their father's orders

Remember Ethan, the gay prep school kid Jack met on the train back from Boston? He's returned home again for Capefest, an ill-defined free music festival that seems to be mainly about camping on the beach. Though Jack is apparently not a fan of popular music, he is easily convinced to come hang out, making Jen come as backup. Also attending? Henry, a veggie burger-grilling, Bruce Springsteen-covering renaissance man who has absolutely no interest in Jen and her inconsistent attempts at platonic friendship. Nikki has embedded herself in the Capeside High film department, getting the extremely offscreen Mr. Jordan to break all the rules of equipment loans so she can use it to work on her latest project. When Dawson decides to take his righteous indignation to her house, it backfires into an invitation for dinner from the adorably proud Principal Green, and exposure to her bedroom and values causes Dawson to experience a crisis of...well, interior design. Andie has decided to volunteer as Assistant Director on t

Four Capesiders give Boston the old college try.

Pacey's got problems all over his life. His FWB arrangement with Jen still hasn't led to any actual sex because they've never quite recaptured the magic of their one good kiss on Witch Island. He's failing most of his classes, so he needs Joey's help to get him through midterms, and the cost for the latter is partnering her in a ballroom class so that she can try to win the dance school's college scholarship. AND his asking her advice about his hypothetical no-strings sex friend is a big mistake, since there are only so many possible candidates. Plus, after sneaking in to Dawson's room to attempt sex, Pacey left a condom on the floor, and Dawson's on the hunt to find out what's going on. Since he starred in Gale's human interest story, Jack has started getting emails, including from another gay kid who only lives two towns over. Andie hectors him until he sets up a date, but is he actually ready? Put on your swishiest skirt and listen to our episode on "Four To Tango"! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

It's Thanksgiving, and the plan is for everyone to gather at Grams's house -- even Pacey, since his family eats later, presumably because everyone hopes his dad gets drunk enough to sleep through it? Gale is living in the Leery guest room while she, and somehow not Mitch, looks for an apartment; Dawson is suspicious of how pleasantly they're getting along. Joey is missing her poor dead mom today more than usual. Andie's plan is to make dinner for Jack and her dad, but then Joseph gets stuck in Chicago so they have to come to Grams's too so that Andie can be weird around Pacey. Only Jen is really having a great day and looking forward to fooling around with Pacey later, per their new FWB arrangement...so it's too bad for her when she opens her bedroom door and sees her mother Helen (Mel Harris!) standing there. What does Dawson do with his secret knowledge of Helen's past? How much does Joey bum everyone out with her orphan-osity? Do Jen and Pacey ever manage to bone??? We hope YOU will be our guest for our ep

Almost four months after becoming a shock box office hit, The Blair Witch Project still has a stranglehold on culture, if we want to be generous and use that term to describe Dawson's Creek. The core four are reading The Crucible in English class, and naturally Dawson decided that he's too special to do assignments as assigned; he's convinced Principal Green -- who's teaching their class to free Mitch up for football stuff, presumably -- to let him make a documentary about a local witch legend. ("Isn't The Crucible kind of...not really about the Salem witch trials?" We'll get into it.) He'd already arranged to have Pacey and Jen "help" so that they could also blow off their papers, and when a desperate Joey runs into the video store to rent The Crucible because she's run out of time to read the play AND the last copy is gone, Dawson belatedly remembers she exists and offers to let her in on the scheme too. On the island, the kids ignore warnings not to get lost in the woods or stay past dark. Joey and Dawson

It was just one episode ago when Dawson thought he'd discovered a link between Eve and Jen, but that's not the titular secret -- it's about Gale and therefore much more boring. Jen wouldn't have time to deal with the bombshell of a possible half-sister anyway: as Capeside's latest Homecoming Queen, she has the responsibility of...planning a gala for fifty years' worth of past Queens? When Jen visits apparently the oldest Queen, Miss Constance Freckling (K Callan!) to try to weasel out of it, she has a bee-facilitated interlude with Henry, aka Miss Freckling's handyboy "Hank." Pacey is keeping busy enlisting members of the police auxiliary to help turn the Potter cottage into a B&B, but drops everything when Andie calls Joey crying that Rob committed sexual misconduct against her, but then won't agree to report him to the authorities. Joey's like, "Hmmmmmmmm." We're like, "Uuuuuuuugh." It's no secret OR lie that we've brought you a new episode -- listen now! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

Dawson has arrived at the film noir section of his film class, and why not -- he's living in one, what with femme fatale Eve mysteriously popping up and disappearing all the time, making him feel like a mark! He's just snapped off The Lady From Shanghai when he notices shady doings across the way at Grams's place, and wouldn't you know it: the person creeping around with a flashlight is none other than Eve, who immediately tries to deflect questions about what she was doing by hitting on Dawson. When that doesn't work, she threatens blackmail with the stolen PSAT. Dawson is so fired up that he does some actual PI work! Is the information he uncovers worth the trouble he gets in with Doug? Henry is still so smitten with Jen that Jack tries causing a date to break out spontaneously without Henry's having to ask Jen (since he is physically unable to speak to her). And when Joey finds out that her latest rejection sent Rob after Andie, she takes extreme measures to protect her friend. Fire up the fan, but not too

We are NOT here for football, and yet it keeps happening to us! Offscreen Gale gives Dawson an opportunity to produce a human interest piece for a national news broadcast, completely on his own. He decides to do something about Jack, the gay football star, and gets signoff from everyone except Jack's coach, Mitch. Jen is also implicated in football culture when the other cheerleaders make a kiss from her a prize in a silent auction, and is so appalled that she resigns as head cheerleader (although events leading up to this do suggest that she was ready to do that regardless and the auction just provided a convenient pretext). Now sprung from his relationship with Andie, Pacey involves Joey in his latest shenanigans; getting caught cutting class for a trip to the post office lands them an unorthodox and moderately punishment from Principal Green that -- get this -- ALSO braids into the football storyline. Andie is trying to put her PSAT cheating in the rearview, but when Principal Green tells her he needs to s

The entire junior class is in a tizzy about the imminent PSAT, the practice for the test that could possibly determine the entire course of their lives. But maybe they don't ALL have to stress about it so much: somehow, Eve comes into possession of a copy, which -- in her established role as a chaos agent -- she gives to Dawson. Then, he lets all his closest friends know he has it so that they can tell him what to do about it; unfortunately, that's when they all have to go outside for a fire drill, leaving their stuff, and when they come back in...the test is gone. Suspicions start flying around as to who the culprit could be, and the complete lack of evidence, apart from past behavior possibly informing actions in the present, doesn't stop Dawson making some pretty uncharitable AND unfounded accusations. Meanwhile, football is apparently still happening whether we like it or not. Jack suspects his teammates are being extra-hard on him for homophobic reasons; Henry tries to help him so that Jack might return

Mitch is, as we learned in the premiere, Capeside High's football coach, and both he and Principal Green are very focused on turning around the team's years-long losing streak. (This contradicts what we were told about now long-gone football star Cliff, but never mind; he's in a better place.) Mitch and the principal thus enlist Dawson to create a promotional film for the team, and somehow he finds the time around condom shopping, because Eve is still around -- now as a Capeside senior -- and still very openly coming on to Dawson whenever she sees him. It's too bad Dawson can't use footage of the current team, because freshman quarterback Henry Parker (Michael Pitt) is actually good, and by chance finds the wide receiver of his dreams in Jack, whom Mitch soon drafts to join the team; this should provide a nice break for Jack from worrying about why his dad, who has moved his business to Capeside so that Andie can resume her studies there, doesn't want Jack to join them. Speaking of Andie: she's inconveniently

Dawson, returning from spending his whole offscreen summer in Philadelphia with Gale, ends up on a bus next to a very confident pixie-cut blonde. When she disappears after he apparently bores them both to sleep yammering about Joey, he assumes he'll never see her again. He assumes wrong, and is no match for her aggressive come-ons. Her sexual overtures while Dawson's out driving them around in Mitch's boat lead Dawson to make some reckless choices with expensive consequences; knowing this girl works at the local exotic dance establishment, Pacey gets the idea to knock off Risky Business with a stripper party at the Leery house. Through all this, Joey has alternated between parrying the unwanted attention of Rob Logan, her new boss at the marina, and regretting the way she told Dawson off in the Season 2 finale. Roomies Jen and Jack have reached a new level of platonically intimate friendship and are so adorable even Grams seems like they're giving her a cavity -- but in a fun way! Less fun: the tyranny of che

We’re off this week but we bring you two Again With Again With This episodes full of SPIDERS?! and death traps. AWAWT 092: Let's Watch Thomas Calabro, Patrick Muldoon, AND Vanessa Williams In Ice Spiders! What happens when a top-secret scientific task force tries to breed gigantic spiders in order to harvest their extremely strong and versatile silk? Well, the spiders break out and menace a ski resort. Obviously. Find out how three ex-Melrose Place stars acquitted themselves in the process! AWAWT 144: Let’s Watch Jack Wagner AND Gabrielle Carteris In Trapped: Buried Alive! 2002’s labored, spark-less Trapped: Buried Alive features an avalanche (of laughable CGI), nonstop bickering, a bratty stepdaughter, gas leaks, Shatnerian line deliveries, and one of the few pregnant women in scripted entertainment NOT to go into labor during a natural disaster. Everyone’s trying…but very little of it’s working. Put down that crossbody full of cash and have a listen! JOIN THE AWT CLUB

We’re off this week but we bring you two Again With Again With This episodes full of Jasons Priestly. AWAWT 123: Let's Watch Jason Priestley In Christmas At Tiffani's! In this special holiday episode of Dinner At Tiffani's, our titular hostess -- with some assistance from her real husband, Brady Smith -- throws a dinner party for two of her TV husbands, the guy who was her 90210 love interest for a few seconds in one season finale, and their wives. Cheese is on the menu in more ways than one. AWAWT 171: Let's Watch Jason Priestley And Liz Vassey In The Christmas Episode Of Tru Calling! Did you know that Jason Priestley was basically a series regular on Tru Calling, Fox's mid-00s sci-fi show as a guy who could see dead people's last moments, and go back in time, or...something? We didn't, and after watching the series finale -- which also features recurring guest star Liz "Marcie St. Claire" Vassey! -- we still don't totally get what was happening in this thing. JOIN THE AWT CLUB

Dawson has a secret and REALLY wishes he didn't. Hoping to avoid telling Joey about her dad's return to drug dealing, he takes Gale's advice and goes straight to Mike, telling him what he knows in the hopes that Mike will...knock it off? Or something? Instead, The Icehouse gets firebombed while all the cocaine -- oh, and also all the kids we know -- are inside. The situation does bring Pacey's dad, Sheriff Witter, back onto the scene to be an even bigger jerk than he was the last time we saw him, which is saying something. The Leerys -- other than their poor boundaries with regard to adult/child friendship -- remain the best in parent class, Gale's decision to leave Capeside for the job in Philadelphia also causes some minor turmoil. Fortunately, we'll always have Grams to model chosen family goals. Warning: parental discretion IS advised for our episode on...well, you know. JOIN THE AWT CLUB